


Bubbles: Part Two

by Nature_Nymph



Series: Parenthood [3]
Category: Berserk
Genre: Gen, Mother's Day, Motherhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 16:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10903449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nature_Nymph/pseuds/Nature_Nymph
Summary: After the battle with the Sea God, it's time to let the body relax in some nice warm water. But the mind and heart is still at work surrounding the mysterious pasts of one's comrades - and a certain little boy who appears during moonlight. A Mother's Day fic.





	Bubbles: Part Two

**Author's Note:**

> It wouldn't be Mother's Day if I didn't release a Mother's Day-themed Berserk fic. Enjoy (and yay first fic release since the beginning of Casca's recovery arc! Confetti for all!)!
> 
> (And the title refers to the fact that there was already an official chapter titled "Bubbles." Similar scenario so why not be a sequel?)

Guts couldn't have arrived aboard the Seahorse sooner. Schierke had felt incredibly anxious for losing their connection in the midst of battle with the Sea God. One moment they were there, in the belly of the whale, the next, she was aboard ship, body and soul still intact. She thought that she had lost Guts for good, until she and the rest of the crew saw the water break with an entourage of merrow, Guts in hand.

Dredging him aboard with Roderick, Isidro, and Serpico supporting him, they saw that Guts had not sustained too much physical damage - or at least, not as severe as past battles. He mostly suffered from fatigue.

Schierke spoke first. "Are you hurt mu -?"

"- Where's Casca?" Guts asked, unintentionally cutting off Schierke's words.

Schierke sighed with a smile. It was so like Guts, to be battle damaged, yet always inquiring about the wellbeing of Casca before his own health.

"She's fine," she answered. "She and the boy are bathing right now - with Farnese of course." Truth be told, they were only in the bath at Schierke's insistence. Farnese was even more worried than herself. Rather than have her apprentice become more overwhelmed upon Guts' arrival, Schierke gave her something else to worry about: with Casca and the boy being soaked to the bone, Guts wouldn't be too happy if she fell ill, no matter if he was near death or not.

"Ah," Guts said. He should have known not to worry. He couldn't help but be overwhelmed with relief that he managed to get out of that visceral abyss, that he'd be able to see Casca again. If he had died in that place of all places, so close to getting to Elfhelm...

"You ought to take one too," Schierke suggested, fidgeting at the same time. "That is, you need to cleanse yourself: both physically and spirtually. It'll help with the healing."

"Aye, aye," Guts heaved, almost losing his breath. He had forgotten how worn he got after this one. Before being hauled to the cabins, Guts looked back at the vast ocean, waves still rippling from where the Sea God was sinking to its final resting place. He wondered a bit.

_Who - what - was that boy? Always coming in the knick of time like that..._

A shock of pain ripped through him, reminding Guts that he really wanted to be rid of this damned armor for awhile. A bath wouldn't sound too bad right now, since he wreaked of blood and entrails (a stench that he thought he would be use to by now), but he needed to lie down first.

Schierke stepped in to take lead of Guts' recovery. "Isidro, Serpico. Help Guts get his armor off and all cleaned up?" she asked.

"Ew! Sponge bath!"

* * *

 

"Alright Casca, you're all clean," Farnese said as she rinsed the remaining suds from Casca's hair. She gave out a relaxing chortle as the warm water cascaded over her body. Farnese couldn't help but smile.

As soon as she had set down the pail, Casca rushed over to the boy, who was crouched down, naked like the two women, playing with some random wooden objects. She turned the little boy, and positioned him between her legs as she seated herself on a nearby stool. Casca then began to lather his long hair with soap suds, spreading the foam further down his body.  
While she did the job rather clumsily, the boy remained where he was, rather comfortable being nestled in between her thighs.

 _She's not too bad at this,_ Farnese thought, a soft smile on her face. Realizing that with Casca taking care of the boy, she had enough time to bathe herself. Relaxing as it was, Farnese really wanted this to be done with as soon as possible, just so she could get back and tend to Guts -

SLAP!

Out of nowhere, her thoughts were interrupted by a stinging sensation on her buttocks. Farnese gave a sharp yelp before she twisted around, seeing that the boy had taken the liberty of patting her rather harshly. It had been done out of curiosity, surely, maybe even playfulness, but she never expected the mute boy to act out in such a way. Farnese flustered with redness, regardless of the intent.

Even more unexpected was Casca's reaction to the boy's little prank. With her hands on her hips, she threw the boy a scowl - not one with the ferociousness that she would give to Guts, rather a look with a more disciplinary quality to it. Had Farnese been a familiar of Casca in her past, she would have recognized the frown as one of the motherly mercenary commander that she once was. As she gurgled her non-coherent utterances, the boy remained as plain-faced as ever, only he diverted his gaze away from Casca's, bending his head down to stare at his little feet in guilt.

"Ah! Don't worry Casca!" Farnese exclaimed, resting her hands Casca's shoulders with her gentleness. "He didn't mean any harm!"

Surprisingly, Casca didn't pay Farnese too much attention, her gaze still hooked to the boy, though her look was much more calm once she saw that the boy was remorseful for his prank. She knelt down and cooed at him, patting him on the head. The pair then returned to their original seat of activity, only the boy was much more placid and relaxed as his head rested against Casca's plush breasts, sucking his thumb as Casca cuddled him. He seemed so much more, _human-like_.

Farnese never failed to be astonished at this. _I never knew Casca could be so responsible,_ she thought as she tended to her own bathing, allowing the pair to be by themselves. Of course, Casca wasn't made totally independent whenever this strange boy came upon them: Farnese still had to look after the both of them. But her work load felt lighter nonetheless since Casca took such attentive care of the boy in her own right, and it was when she was with the boy that she ever acted so. _It's like she's a mother herself._

Farnese.wondered if somewhere, maybe, Casca had a child of her own, another thing lost to her alongside her sanity. Could she have even been driven to this state by the loss of her child? She herself had seen, while on duty at St. Albion, refugee women who had been driven to near insanity by the deaths of their children, losing the last thing of value to them in their poverty.

She glanced back, seeing that the boy was near sleep as Casca continued to soothe him, herself looking very calm as she stared downed at the boy, happiness and love in her eyes and smile. Farnese so rarely saw true emotion behind Casca's otherwise blank expression. It was only ever expressed when Casca was involved with either the boy or Guts (out of fear and hatred, of course). She turned to look at them more, trying to connect dots that probably weren't there to begin with.

_What if... Guts and Casca had a...?_

Her heart skipped, a gasp caught in her throat. It was just one of many things that panged at the core of her mind. The thought of Guts and Casca being so intimately involved was enough for Farnese to bear: she was still dealing with the repercussions of what she witnessed during her astral projection.

 _"She's my..."_ The words still lingered on her mind, just as they lingered on Guts' lips. Farnese didn't understand why Guts' confession bothered her, especially bearing in mind that since the beginning, ever since their first encounter, Casca had always been first, his drive - or as far as she knew.

Maybe it was just the finality of it all, knowing that she could never take the place of Casca in Guts' heart, whether she was cured or not. Adding a child to the mix just seemed to twist the knife further, evidence of their intimacy, their bond.

But where would this child of their's be? Staying with a relative, maybe? That didn't seem probable, or else wouldn't that relative be looking after Casca as well, being an insane woman and all?

Farnese's gut wrenched in a completely opposed direction, causing her to nearly gape at the woman and child upon her next theory.

What if their child was dead? And what more - _what if Guts was responsible?_

It could explain so much: Guts and Casca's distance from one another upon their absence after the fall of St. Albion, Casca's hatred toward Guts and his sullen attitude towards her. It also gave reason as to why Casca clung to the boy whenever he appeared, and why Guts, despite how stoic he tried to appear, always had a distressed glint in his lone eye as it stared long and hard at Casca's interaction with the boy. Was he feeling guilt, going through his own variant of mourning?

It was odd. Thinking of this scenario, Farnese could almost understand the venom that Casca had been directing at Guts. Whether he was at fault or not, she had saw how deep a mother's heartache could run among the scores of women at St. Albion.

When she was down rinsing the soap off, Farnese grabbed a towl and wrapped herself in it. Afterwards, Farnese stepped toward Casca and the child, kneeling down to their level. There she stared at Casca, who only then looked up and away from the boy sleeping curled in her lap.

"Casca," she began, glancing between her eyes and the boy's form. "Did...?"

Did she what? Did _he_ what? What was she asking of this woman, her expression blank again? Above all, what could Casca say back to her? Farnese was so deep in her thoughts that she had forgotten that she was speaking to an amnesiac and mute, one who could not speak for herself or for Guts when he would not let the barriers of their shrouded past fall.

It frustrated Farnese more so than ever.There were just so many unanswered questions about her ward, about Guts too, and again, she could just be connecting non-existent dots. Better to leave it where it was in vain, once again.

Farnese let out a sigh, but smiled at Casca, combing her fingers through damp tendrils. "You did such a good job," Farnese congratulated, cueing to the boy who was asleep now, so Casca knew a faint trace of what her speech implied. Casca grinned in response.

"Auu!"

"Yes! You're an excellent caretaker." _Whether as a mother or a big sister or what not._

Farnese stood and beckoned to her with dry towels in hand. "Come on. Let's get you two ready for bed."

 

**Author's Note:**

> So this fic has been in my fanfiction folder for about two years now (I think?). Just goes to prove that I CAN pick up on writing from years ago and finish them!
> 
> So when am I ever going to release that last chapter of "Breakthrough"?
> 
> >_>
> 
> Truth be told, I do edit and add to it here and there, but even more than that, I've been working some of my original writings a lot these days. As much as Breakthrough is wish fulfillment and a deconstruction of the certain timeline events, and despite the fact that Berserk perhaps my all time favorite works of fiction, I'm still not whole heartedly happy with everything that has happened concerning Casca's character arc and treatment (and hey - I'm not the author so I gotta deal with it), so I've just taken up arms and started writing my own story. I can just be writing to fulfill my own needs - or it could be published in the next five years. Only time will tell.
> 
> But ya hopefully "Breakthrough" will be completed by then. :V
> 
> So interestingly enough, this was going to be a tie in to another underdeveloped fic, where Farnese, ever so frustrated with Casca's behavior and Guts' secrecy, crosses into Guts' dreamscape and gets a glimpse of he and Casca's past. This would have taken place before they got to Elfhelm, while still aboard the Seahorse, but new developments in the manga is making me rework this.
> 
> All in due time (with full time work and all). ;_;


End file.
